Words on a page that might help me, or you, someday, maybe.

Lessons

Today I got ever so slightly better at skiing. We had three and a half hours of lessons this morning, and I feel like I came out of it with more ability than I went into it with – which I guess is kind of the point, and what I paid the money for.

I went into the lessons not really knowing what I was doing, but I’ve come out of it knowing kind of too much. I suddenly have loads of things to think about, and to remember, which makes it more complicated but also easier. Y’know?

I have to remember to bend into the turn and stand up out of it, to count 1, 2, 3, but not uniformly, more oneeeeeeeee, twothree, than one, two, three. And put your pole in the ground on 2. And lean forward whilst also facing down the mountain. Keep your shoulders parallel to the bottom of the slope. Make sure your shins are touching your boots. Bring your ankles together when you stand up. No snow plough. Don’t panic.

Easy, isn’t it?

Occasionally, I’ll do a turn where all of that kind of happens, and it’s like ‘yay’ but most of the time I forget one or two things and it’s like ‘meh’ and then sometimes the slope is too steep or too snowy or too close to a cliff and sometimes it’s all three and it’s like ‘HOLY MOTHER OF SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK DONT PANIC’

But overall I’m getting better. It’s a lot to learn, and it doesn’t help that visibility has been non-existent all week. Hopefully it will start to clear up tomorrow and we’ll be able to have a full, proper day’s ski.